The Fifth Shinobi War
by Daisuke Sonoa
Summary: This is set approximately 15 - 18 years after the current Naruto story, and is also under the assumption that a Fourth Shinobi War will occur in the manga. Also it is NaruHina, but does not focus on that. It follows the story of their child, Murai.
1. Prologue

**Prologue/Chapter 1:**

"Come on hurry up Murai! We're gonna be late if we don't hurry up." A young girl yelled as she ran up the street towards the red building that housed the Hokage, her pink hair flitting around her neck behind her, her pink skirt flicking just above her knees, her black top reached to just below her waist. A black haired boy, with a black top and black trousers, jumped down from a roof and landed next to her as he laughed and whispered "Caught up with you already Hitomi" before laughing and running onwards before jumping onto an awning and then to the rooftops again. Hitomi laughed before running faster and reaching the double doors as the black haired boy landed in front of her. A blonde haired boy, his bright blue eyes shining out, skidded to a halt and looked at his two friends as they grinned at him.

"That was cheating Akihito, and you Hitomi. Leaving me a message to say it's a race to the Hokage's building whilst you guys sprint off in front of me is unfair." The boy said, as he looked them both in the eyes with his pupil-less lilac eyes.

Hitomi laughed as she flicked a piece of her bright pink hair out of her eyes, "Uh huh, like you've never done it before Murai, and besides, didn't you say you were faster than me?"

Akihito chuckled as he pushed the doors open and led the way inside whilst Murai and Hitomi carried on bickering behind him. After a minute or two they reached a plain door, which he knocked on. "Enter" a soft voice called out.

They did so and pushed the door open to reveal the Hokage's room. A desk stood at the end of the room, surrounded by windows looking out over the village, to the right, five portraits hung on the walls, nameplates below, with a sixth empty. Murai's eyes swept the room, taking in everything, the piles of paperwork to one side, the coat slung over a chair to the other, and a man standing behind the desk looking out over the village, his back to the door, hands together. His green khaki vest bulked his slim frame out, his white hair spiky, reaching to the top of the windows. He turned to look at the three _genin_, his forehead protector down over his left eye, a black mask covering his nose and mouth, left only his right eye visible, the black pupil seeming to penetrate everything. "Lord Hokage" Akihito and Hitomi said reverently.

"Yo, Kakashi-Sensei what did you want us for?" Murai grinned as the Hokage sat down in the chair behind the desk. The Hokage smiled before going "The Chunin Exams are coming up, in less than a week to be exact. Konohamaru has put all three of you forward for it."

"Excellent!" Murai yelled punching the air, Hitomi grinned widely and Akihito pulled a sly grin, before asking, "What's the catch?"

Murai looked over at him before returning his gaze to the Hokage. The Hokage smiled beneath his mask and chuckled, "You understand the situation we're in at the moment don't you? With the temporary ceasefire, the Chunin Exams are more important than ever. As you know, the Chunin Exams are there to promote friendship through the nations on the surface, whilst conducting a miniature war between the nations under the surface. However, there are going to be plenty who do not wish to promote the friendship even on the surface, and are going in with the full intent to kill as many other candidates from other villages as possible. Yet, due to the rules of the exams, there is little that we can do to stop them, as the second exam will show you. However, I request that you hold yourselves back in this exam. Only use enough strength to defeat the opponent, but make it look like your struggling or trying hard. We need to keep _some_ of our strength hidden to the other competitors, in case war breaks out again, and if it does, Konoha will need some shinobi who have skills unknown to our opponents, you three are some of those shinobi that will be required. You three are some of the best shinobi we have, even though most of the shinobi in this village believe that you three are simply standard and slightly lazy genin."

Murai laughed, "Well that's because you keep us up all night Sensei, if you didn't we might be more attentive in class."

The Hokage chuckled before replying "Are you complaining about all the extra classes I've given you Murai?"

"Of course not Sensei, those extra lessons are starting to pay off, I've nearly got my new jutsu completed." He chuckled before muttering to Hitomi "and this one, is unknown to everyone, even Kakashi-Sensei." She raised her eyebrows at him as he finished his sentence.

"So our mission is to pass the Chunin Exams, yet holding ourselves back and looking like we're going all out as we do in lessons and all other training, correct Lord Hokage?" Akihito asked.

"To put it simply, yes. Also, I do not want you to tell your parents of this mission either." He paused before continuing, "And there the discussion will have to end, although you will not be able to come to any of the night lessons anymore, at least until I tell you again, understood?"

"Completely"  
"Crystal clear sir"

"Totally Sensei"

Murai turned to the door as the Hokage said, you can come in you six." The door opened and three men and three girls walked in. The men stood tall, two with black hair, one pulled back into a ponytail sticking into the air, the other's hair was short and dangled over his headband, the third, had his blonde hair sticking up at all angles, his black headband holding it back from his forehead. The first had a green khaki vest like the Hokage's, with black clothing underneath, a metal plate with a leaf inscribed on it sewn into left sleeve. The second had a black top, which stopped before his stomach, red straps leading down either side of his chest. The third stood at the front, orange trousers and top, with black sleeves and upper chest.

The girls stood behind the three men, one a blonde, her hair split into four ponytails, with bangs hanging over the front of her headband, a large closed fan across her back, wearing a black dress with a red cloth wound round her waist. The second stood with a deep red sleeveless shirt, black gloves, grey skirt reaching to her thighs and shoulder length pink hair. The third had waist length dark navy blue hair, pupil-less lilac eyes, a lilac top with long cream sleeves, and navy blue trousers reaching to her shins.

"Hey Shikamaru, Sai, Naruto, Temari, Sakura, Hinata." The Hokage nodded to each of them in turn.

The three _genin_ smiled at the six shinobi as they walked in, "Hey Dad, hey Mum" Murai spoke first, smiling at the blonde man and the dark navy haired girl

"Hey kid," The blonde smiled ruffling his son's hair.

"Hey Murai," his mother smiled. Akihito and Hitomi greeted their parents similarly, before the Hokage looked at Akihito's father and said "Shikamaru, can you go find Choji please? I need you him and Lee to go on a mission"

Shikamaru looked up "Sure," He turned to face the door, tapped his son on the shoulder, nodded to the others and walked out the door, his black hair disappearing round the door. The blonde girl nodded to the others before turning to Akihito and saying "Come on, we need to get back." Akihito nodded to the other two before heading out the door in front of his mother.

"Naruto, we need to go back as well" Murai's mother said to his father. Naruto nodded, "See ya Kakashi-Sensei, Sakura, Sai." before walking out the door with Hinata and Murai. Hitomi turned to face the Hokage, "Anything else Lord Hokage?" He shook his head, leaving Sakura, Sai and Hitomi to walk home. The Hokage turned back to face out the window once more.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter 1:**

Murai rolled out of bed and hit the floor, his face crumpling against the wooden floor, the sound of raucous laughter coming from his father. "Oh shut up Dad," He said, rolling his eyes, as he picked himself off the floor and clambered out of his quilt. He looked up and stared into a bowl of steaming ramen, his father smiling over the top. Murai's eyes lit up and he held out his hands and put the ramen on the floor. "Itadikimasu!" Snapping his chopsticks apart, he started eating. His father stared out of the window as Murai finished off the ramen, sighing deeply after he had drained the last drops from the bowl, before looking over to his father, "What's wrong Dad?"

Naruto turned around and smiled at his son, "Nothing Murai, I'm just remembering when I did my Chunin Exams, I had the worst Jonin possible for the first test, and the craziest for the second," he laughed. "Ibiki Morino and Anko Miterashi. Pray you don't get them, 'cause Ibiki will torture you, and Anko is mental."

Murai laughed "Don't worry Dad; I'll be fine, even if I do get them, I'm sure he won't be that bad."

"Murai, Naruto, come on, we need to go." Hinata's voice rang out from below. Naruto turned to look at his son, "Come on, get dressed, you've only got another hour before you have to be at the Chunin Exams. And don't worry at all, you'll be fine, and I know you'll pass." He smiled at Murai. Murai laughed before replying, "Don't worry Dad, I'm not worried at all, you and Mum are the ones who are worrying"

*

Half an hour later, he said goodbye to his parents as they ran off for another mission, whilst he turned to the exam centre. By the time he arrived, Hitomi and Akihito were already there, and, inevitably, arguing. Murai didn't even bother attempting to listen in as he walked up to them, thinking of what the Hokage had said, "There are candidates who are simply aiming to kill you." He stopped next to Akihito and Hitomi, and his discord must have shown on his face as they both stopped arguing and looked at him, slightly worried. "Earth to Murai, you there mate?" Akihito waved his hand in front of his eyes.

"Hunh? Oh, right yeah, sorry, let's go." Murai turned and led the way into the building, Akihito and Hitomi sharing shrugs behind his back. As they turned onto the second floor they saw a commotion at one end of the corridor, at the opposite end to the stairs. Hitomi looked along before chuckling "Gullible idiots, it's a _genjutsu_, and not even a very good one, we're still on the second floor, not the third. They'll never make it as _chunin_" They chuckled together before going up another flight of stairs to the third floor. Konohamaru stood at the end of the corridor, leaning against the wall. He greeted the three _genin_, raising his hand in reply to the greetings he received. "Hey you three, see you ignored the _genjutsu_ downstairs," smiling as Hitomi chuckled, "If you fall for that you don't deserve to even try out to be a _chunin_." Murai and Akihito nodded in agreement as they walked towards the double doors to the entrance of the exam hall.

Konohamaru smiled before opening the door and waving them inside, "Good luck."

They walked into the room, Murai's eyes instantly looking around the room, taking everything and everyone in, his darting eyes finding headbands, village symbols, his eyes piercing everything. Akihito's eyes found the windows, the high ceiling, the small mirrors set into it, an obvious attempt at earlier candidates trying to get ahead in case of a written test, and the blackboard set at the opposite end of the room. Hitomi's eyes searched out faces, assessed strengths, and guessed slight weaknesses, always looking the people she saw in the eyes, often causing them to try to out stare her, and failing. Murai had once said she could out stare a statue, and the Hokage had agreed.

A shout rang out from the back of the room "Alright, everyone shut up and listen up!" Everyone turned to face the black cloaked man who stood in front of the blackboard. "I will be your head proctor for the first exam. My name is Ibiki Morino." Murai rolled his eyes and tutted; he knew his parents had jinxed this exam. "There are several rules I will explain now. Number one: you will not ask any questions; number two: there will not be any fighting without the express permission of the proctor, in this exam's case, myself. Now everyone take a number from the proctors behind me and sit in the relevant seat so we can start the written exam."

Murai, Akihito and Hitomi turned to look at each other, before grinning and walking up to the queue, and waiting patiently before picking out their numbers: 12, 45 and 79. They sat down with the rest of the examinees, and looked towards the front of the room. "I will now explain the rules; you are not allowed to ask questions; my word is absolute law; every question you answer correct will keep your points at their current level, that of ten. For every question answered wrongly will lose you a point. If you are caught cheating you will lose two points. Also, every team member is required to have more than one point remaining, so if any team member's score falls to zero, the entire cell will be disqualified immediately."

Several jaws throughout the hall dropped at the last words, and a few anxious glances shot around the room, much to Murai's amusement. 'We're all going to pass, so I'm just going to sit back and enjoy everyone's discomfort' he chuckled to his own thoughts.

"If you are aiming to be the best _chunin_ in all of the countries, then you had best start acting like you already are. Or you _will_ be disqualified."

Ibiki moved around the examinee's desks, glaring at each one in turn, dropping the exam papers on each desk. He lingered in front Murai for leaning back in his seat, hands behind his head, grinning at the ceiling. Murai grinned at Ibiki as he went past, earning him an evil scowl. Hitomi chuckled to herself as Ibiki walked past Murai, whilst Akihito shook his head. Ibiki finished striding round as the other proctors sat along the edge of the room, clipboards in hand, smirking evilly at all the examinees. "Everyone has an exam paper? Then turn it over and you may begin. The tenth question will be handed out with ten minutes left to go."

*

Forty nine minutes, several kunai scars in the desks around the hall, and fifteen teams down, Murai was, once again, leaning back on his seat. He had been doodling on the back of his exam paper, but a light growl from Ibiki signalled that he should leave the back of his exam paper _well alone_. Akihito, Hitomi and Murai had all finished within ten minutes of the exam. But all pretended to keep working until forty minutes had passed and most of the people in the hall had finished the first nine questions as well before starting to fidget. Ibiki turned to the other proctors, nodded, and slammed his hand on the blackboard. "Ok, put down your pencils and look at me."

'What else are we gonna look at? The moon?' Murai smiled at the thought.

As if hearing the thought, Ibiki glared at Murai again before continuing, "This question has another rule, which I will explain now. If you get this question wrong, then you will never be allowed to enter this exam ever again. You will remain at _genin_ level, _permanently._" You could hear the jaws dropping at people muttering around the hall, "What? That's ridiculous"

"Hold on! What about those who failed in the past? They could still take the test again couldn't they?" A voice rang out from the back of the room, near the doors.

"I thought I said no questions? But I will answer that as I was about to anyway, those who have taken the test before are just unlucky that they didn't have me before and do now, but I tell you now, if you get this question wrong, not only you, but the rest of your cell as well that will not be allowed to progress beyond _genin_. I will give you this chance to quit now and take it again next time, where you might be lucky, I might not be the proctor for the test next time. But if you stay you are risking the chance that you will remain genin for the rest of your life, stuck to doing pathetic D missions. Forever. So if you aren't confident to the level that is required, then don't even bother staying. Just go."

Murai, Akihito and Hitomi watched as cell after cell left, before those remaining didn't move and just stared at Ibiki. He looked at them all before smiling for the first time. "Congratulations, you've just passed the first test."

Akihito smiled to himself, 'I knew it...the tenth question was a dud, just like Sensei said it was.'

A clamour grew over the remaining examinees, mostly centred on "What was the tenth question? Where was it? When did we answer it?" Hitomi noticed that six cells were sitting there perfectly calm, almost mirroring her, Murai and Akihito's own actions. She noticed the headbands, Waterfall, Grass, Mist, Rain, Sand and Stone. She eyed them slightly nervously, out of them all, only one of them was on the same allied side as them, and they didn't look entirely friendly. She could only see two of them, and the headband of the third, but she couldn't see his head until he leaned back. Hitomi relaxed instantly, she recognised the spiky red hair, and the slightly pale skin, Remi, Akihito's cousin and daughter of the Kazekage and his close escort, Matsuri. The other two she didn't know that well, but she knew Remi was cold on top, but warm and kind underneath.

Ibiki raised his hand for silence, "That was the tenth question, whether you would risk everything for the mission, everyone here wants to be a _chunin_, else you wouldn't have taken the test. So by denying you a chance to ever progress beyond _genin_, you were forced into an impossible situation, and you passed through it. Congratulations."

A door to his right slammed open. Everyone, Ibiki included, turned to stare at the person standing in the doorway. Murai's eyes rolled up her entire body up to the scraggly black hair atop her head. He groaned as she announced herself to the surprised room, "My name is Anko Miterashi and I'm you proctor for the second exam!"

'I am so gonna kill Dad for jinxing my _chunin_ exam' Murai muttered to himself as Anko started complaining to Ibiki that so many teams had been allowed to pass.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter 2:**

Hitomi and Akihito chuckled to themselves as Murai's eyes shot daggers into the tall woman at the front of the examinees. "Alright you midgets line up and collect a consent form, else we won't be allowed to throw you in there, plus I don't want to be held responsible for any corpses or anything that happens in there, and you wouldn't want that now would you?" She winked at everyone smirking evilly. Murai groaned as he walked towards her and grabbed his consent form, scowling at her. Hitomi and Akihito followed as Murai crashed onto a grassy hillock as far away from Anko as he could. "Man she gets on my nerves!" He complained as he filled out the consent form.

"Oh well at least you only have to suffer her for the beginning and the end of the exam," Hitomi laughed.

"Yeah but that's far too long for him regardless," Akihito grinned, earning him a gesture from Murai.

"OI YOU LOT FINISHED YET?" Anko's voice boomed out over the surrounding area, signalling the end of the little break and so all three rushed back to where they had started from. "Just in time too, else you'd have missed the big explanation" she smiled at them. "Alright, has everyone got a good hold of their signed forms?" she asked and continued without giving anyone a chance to answer, "Good. Now let me explain the second exam. This area behind me," She indicated the mass of dark greenery behind her, "Is the Forty Fourth Training Ground, or as we _jonin_ like to call it, The Forest Of Death. Now, those consent forms that you all just signed will be traded in that small hut over there," she pointed to a small, cream coloured hut next to the wire mesh surrounding the forest, "for a number indicating your gate, and one of these." She pulled out two scrolls, a blue one with the kanji for Heaven on, whilst the other was a dark cream, adorned with the kanji for Earth.

"Now then, these are your primary target; everyone will start with one and _must_ end up with two. When you have two, you need to go to the centre of the forest, as marked by the massive tower, ten kilometres from every gate. Also, at no point during the exam are you allowed to open the scrolls and read their contents, as that will result in immediate disqualification. The reason for that, is that if you are on a mission with top secret documents, we need to know we can trust you to deliver them without reading them, understood?

"Plus, if you get to the tower before all the time is up, well just sit around and talk to one another for however long you have left. Once you have two, I suggest you head for the tower as fast as you can; there are things in there which are _really_ scary. Oh yeah, even if you have your scroll stolen, you will need to find someone weaker than you who have somehow managed to get a scroll or two, and steal theirs. If the time runs out and you only have one scroll, then you will simply be disqualified. Even if you have two, but you don't make it to the tower by the end of the allotted time, then you will not be allowed in. At the end of the time, we will make a scoop of the entire area, after locking the doors of course, from the tower outwards, so if you can't make it to the tower in time, then you will simply be picked up by us and chucked out. Ok?" She smiled warmly, even as people looked at her with loathing.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, when you reach the tower, we'll provide you with food and a place to sleep, but until then, you'll have to find all that stuff in the forest yourself, whilst guarding yourselves from wild animals, poisonous bugs and stuff like that." She grinned and stepped aside indicating the small hut, the door open, but nothing inside viewable.

'Guess that means we won't be able to tell who's got what scroll, and who is carrying it.' Hitomi thought to herself, as their three man cell walked into the gloom, traded the three consent forms for a scroll and a number and slipped the scroll into their bag, before proceeding to the forty-fourth gate with their proctor. Five minutes after they arrived, a loud boom sounded, causing hundreds of birds to fly up from the forest. The proctor unlocked the gate and pushed it wide open, grinning "Try not to die; it'll be annoying having to clean up your bodies, especially after five days."

Murai strode into the forest and smiled as the gate clacked shut behind them. They waited for the proctor to leave before crouching down and looking at Akihito expectantly. He grinned in response and pulled out a kunai. He drew a large circle, a line running through it from one side to the other, a circle in the centre, and forty four dashes around the edge, before numbering everyone from one to forty four, cutting the forty-fourth in half. "That's us, at the forty-fourth gate." Hitomi and Murai nodded. "Our goal is here," he stabbed the kunai in the centre of the circle, "The tower at the centre. An approximate ten kilometres from our starting point here.

"Now, what we're gonna do is travel over to the river and establish two primary bases about a hundred metres from it on both banks, and one right on the bank, doesn't matter which side, but I say the side furthest from our starting point. Then, we're gonna set up traps for a half kilometre around us, and wait till nightfall before making out move, understood?" Hitomi and Murai nodded once more. "Show me all the weapons you brought with you, any trap materials and stuff like that, anything that you brought with you or were told to bring by Sensei." Akihito grabbed his bag and upturned it next to him, with Murai and Hitomi mirroring him, so three piles of weaponry, paper and wire were heaped next to each person, and the scroll placed above the diagram. Akihito checked each pile before nodding to himself and destroying the diagram with a swoop of his foot.

"I'll make all three camps and trap them myself. You two spread out your traps; use everything bar three kunai and two paper bombs. You should have enough for..." he closed his eyes in thought, "Thirty five different traps each, make sure they're as different as possible, make sure that avoiding one will possibly trigger another, make them as hard to see as possible. When you get started Murai, make a clone and make it finish the rest of the traps, then come after us yourself. As the clone is going through all the traps, have it set a clone up every few metres or so, so you cover the entire area, likewise with you Hitomi. Also, when you cover the river make sure that there is a clear path along it, but not above it, just along it, a gap of...say, three metres. Three metres above the river, other than that make the traps cover everywhere. Understood?" Hitomi and Murai nodded once more before piling everything back into their bags and handing the scroll to Akihito.

"Right, let's go." Akihito signalled for them to move and they shot into the trees and sped along towards the river. After two minutes Akihito threw a kunai into the ground below them and Murai leapt off to the left and landed on a tree, pulling a ball of taught wire from his bag and cutting it with his kunai. Akihito and Hitomi carried on for another minute until they reached the river, where Akihito dropped and Hitomi carried on moving. Akihito immediately began to set up a ring of stones, with dry grass in the centre. Raising his eyes to the forest above, he smiled and leaped upwards, setting up traps all around the camp before dropping to the ground. Murai arrived next to him, before asking "What did the Hokage say to us before we left?"

"That we aren't allowed to come to night classes until after the chunin exams." Akihito answered instantly, hiding one hand behind his back, and raising three fingers before covering it with the other hand and lowering one of them, "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Murai looked at him before muttering "Byakugan!" Instantly, his eyes gained two circles, one where his pupil should be, another further out, the veins raising themselves along his cheeks. He grinned before raising his hand with his first and middle finger raised, "This many." Akihito grinned and they set to work, Murai moving to finish the main camp, whilst Akihito created two clones, sending one to the left of the bank, and the other to the right, both to make a small camp on either side as backup.

Hitomi appeared further down the river, before running along it and arriving next to Murai. "How many times have you turned me down?" he asked her.

"As far as I'm aware you haven't asked me yet, so I believe the answer is zero. What do you call the Hokage?" She replied looking thoughtful before smiling.

"His name of course, that of Kakashi-Sensei, as he is our Sensei." Murai said grinning, before staring at the fish swimming in the river next to them. "Anyone for lunch?"

Akihito and Hitomi grinned as Murai ripped his top off and plunged into the river. Hitomi crouched next to the river, pulled out ten senbon, set four next to her and waited patiently for three fish to flop upwards. She didn't have to wait long. Seven fish shot upwards out of the river, causing her to jump as one landed in her lap, whilst she speared the other six with her senbon. Akihito grabbed them and threw them into the stone circle and waited for Murai to surface again, which he did in spectacular fashion. He launched himself out of the water, flipping over and landing on the rock above them perfectly. He turned to grin at them before a fish smacked him in the face. Grabbing it he stared angrily at a soaking Hitomi who was swearing at him. He laughed and jumped down, lobbing the fish back to Akihito, as he was spearing the other five onto three sticks and setting them up over the stone circle.

Murai grinned, '**Snake Ram Monkey Boar Horse Tiger**. Fire Style, Great Fireball Jutsu'. The fire roared into life, nearly singing Hitomi's pink hair in the process. Akihito smiled and flipped the fish onto the Y-Shaped sticks he had set up around the circle, and they sat down, waiting for the fish to cook so that they could eat.

Soon, the fish were ready and Murai flipped a stick up slid the fish off it onto the stone below, before flipping them up and devouring them whole, pulling the bones out his mouth as he went along. Hitomi shook her head before her and Akihito followed suit.

Presently, night fell. Akihito turned to the other two and nodded. They split up and sped off in different directions, Murai to the North, Hitomi to the East, and Akihito to the West.


End file.
